The massive field in the Amazon Room.

Day 1 of Event #7 ($1500 No Limit Hold ‘em) saw 2,791 players sit down at the felt. Just before the final break of the night Gary Tang took down a massive pot and raised his stack to 120,000, while the second highest stack belonged to Shaun Deeb. Deeb had 42,000. Tang raised with J 9 from the cut-off,  he was then called by both blinds and led out for 3,300 on a flop of J J 7. The small blind folded and the big blind called. The K came on the turn and the big blind check-raised all-in. Tang said he took about thirty seconds before making the call. The 4 landed on the river, which was of no help to the opponent and Tang emerged as the chip leader in the field.

Jonathan Little and Minneapolis Jim Meehan sat in the top five most of the night.  At one point, Meehan, with his trademark cigarette, unlit, in his mouth, was overheard saying “Never, ever flat call. At least if you bust you played like a man.” To which a female player at his table responded, “I guess you’re not a man.”

During level 10 with just 33 minutes left of play, at a table of unkowns, Leo Whitt in seat 3 pushed all-in, seat 4 folded and seat 5, holding a slightly bigger stack, moved all-in over the top. Whitt showed A A and seat 5 showed A A, one player yelled, “Do it slow,” and the dealer slowly peeled off a flop of T 2 4. 9 hit on the turn and the entire table erupted in disbelief. The river was useless and seat 5 accepted the bad beat with grace.

2008 bracelet winners and brothers Blair and Grant Hinkle ended up at the same table for most of the day. Late in the night Blair was able to pick up a big pot when he raised pre-flop with 6 9. The small blind called, then check-called on a flop of A K 8, the small blind check-called on the turn K and again on the river 5. When Hinkle showed his cards his opponent mucked and Hinkle raised his chip stack to 48,000. However, the stack wasn’t enough to hold his spot until Day 2, he was eliminated just before the end of play for Day 1.

Table 2 was possibly the toughest in the room with Brandon Cantu, Clark Hamagami, Matt Brady, Michael Pesek and Michael Martin.

Just days after taking fifth in Event #2 ($40,000 No Limit Hold ‘em) Justin Bonomo was unable to stay in long enough for a second cash at the 2009 WSOP.

Phil Hellmuth busted before the dinner break when he called an opponents all-in bet on the turn with Q 8. The board read  [10h] 7 [3x] [Qx] and his opponent happened be holding pocket Queens. The river did not give him the heart he was looking for, and as usual, he left the field with an array of kindred words for his opponent.

It was not the best day for the lady greats of poker. Vanessa Rousso and Esther Taylor made their way to the rail about half way through the day. J.J. Liu was also eliminated when her Queen high flush got beat by an opponent who had the King, while Liv Boeree and Kathy Liebert were both eliminated during level 8.

Other big names that did not last through Day 1 include Chris Ferguson, Freddy Deeb,  John Juanda, Jerry Yang, Hevad Khan and Dario Minieri.

At the end of Day 1 only 338 players remain. Play will resume tomorrow at 2 p.m.  remain. It will be a short trip to the money when the players return at 2PM tomorrow and vie for a spot in the  prize pool of $3,809,715as 297.

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